It is forecast to be 102 here today, so I thought I would take one of the many twisties from hear down to Morro Bay for fish and chips. Got in the car, turned the key and NOTHING.

Note to self: Whenever my 2 year old Grand Daughter is playing in Grandpas' 914, make sure all the switches are back to normal when the little darling gets out.

All the magic smoke is gone?

No smoke this time. All the electrons ran away. She had pulled all the light switches out and I didn't insure they were all pushed back in.

Oh, that kind of electrical gremlin! I’ve got one of those. Killed the 240Z battery with a 4 day running light marathon.

Here she is rockin’ her Miss Norway outfit ‘cause grandpa is part Norwegian...

Your not going to trust that old rattle trap to get you to the G&R meet and back again, are you Elly?

Maybe he will ride his bike there.

What a cute kid.

make sure all the switches are back to normal when the little darling gets out.
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Sounds like pilot error on your part mavrick


Now get your butt outta that flight suit and to g,n r
Swap meet

I just put 2000 miles on it to Colorado and back. I think (OK I'm pretty sure) it will make it to Riverside.

I just went downstairs to check out my battery that been on a charger for about 12 hours. The charger said "bad bat" and it only had about 5 volts. It's an Optima that has been in the car for about 10 years so it's about time. I now see a really cheap battery in my future.

Some SMART chargers won't charge a battery that far down, even if it is otherwise OK. try hooking up another battery in parallel and putting the charger on both of them. that may work.

Thanks. I had completely forgotten that procedure and I'm trying it now.
GO STEELERS

that is exactly how you have to recharge an Optima battery - I killed my last optima and having to use other battery to charge it was too difficult and decided it was not the best way to go for the 914 - I do have an optima in our Lincoln Nav. and its been fine. - btw 10 years is pretty darn good!

OK, I got my battery back. I hooked up an old 12 volt lawn and tracker battery to the Optima and I have a full charge now. Lets see how long it lasts.

Until the next time you leave the lights on... blaming your granddaughter... shame on you!

Most of the 'smart' chargers ain't too smart at times, so I've piggy-backed another 'good' battery to trick them too. I also have a brute charger for when the smart-ass chargers refuse and I don't care to lift a battery out of one of the other vehicles. I keep a Deltran 'Battery Tender'® connected to the Harley the entire time it's parked in the garage.

Word of caution - some auto manufacturers recommend disconnecting one of the battery cables before charging your battery. Yes, you might loose your radio presets, and if you have an impending smog test, you may loose ECU history data, which may cause a normally good clean running vehicle from passing said smog test.

Some vehicles need to be driven up to 300 miles for the ECU to clear error codes, or provide adequate data to the smog test computer. It happened with my Tacoma last year, but luckily, only took about 60 miles to clear the code(s) ... and passed the smog re-test just fine (for an additional $ amount)

I disconnected both cables on my car battery. Although I don't have a radio, don't need to get a smog check and certainly do not have an ECU.

That kid is totally irresponsible and shouldn't be allowed to drive a car.

Yeah, and the old school cars with standard points & condenser and without an ECU, will still be driveable, should ever have this misfortune to experience an EMP strike

The 'BB', the Ghia and the 912 will all still run, post apocalypse ... if they ever come off of the jack stands

sucks when you can't lift a totally flat battery with them,I have and old school charger for that, honestly have no idea why that works .